We were pleased to welcome Sue O'Brien from the Football Conference Trust to Bower Fold on Saturday versus Brackley Town FC to present the Club with a cheque for £40,000.00 towards our Community Development work in and around Stalybridge and across Tameside.

The Football Conference Trust is a charity created to support and develop community programmes at Football Conference clubs. It is a partnership between the Football Conference, the Premier League and the Professional Footballers' Association. The Premier League and the PFA have each committed to support the Trust until 2017. They have each contributed to a total fund of £5.2m.

Community Development Officer, Mike Smith, 'A massive thank you to Sue and The Football Conference Trust for awarding Stalybridge Celtic FC this grant, which will enable us to build and develop our Disability Team, Walking Football Team, Active Goals schools programme amongst others, and grow to be a main provider of football based community projects and initiatives for people of all ages and background. We will shortly be achieving charitable status as the 'Stalybridge Celtic Community Trust' and look forward to creating new partnerships and exciting activities in the coming months'.

Our Disability Team were on hand during half time on Saturday to take delivery of the cheque which covers a two year funding period.

For more information on our Community Work contact Mike Smith  via email at: community@stalybridgeceltic.co.uk